Dave Matthews Band performs at Montage Mountain in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 2008.

Live Trax Vol. 22: 7.14.10 Montage Mountain, Scranton, PA, Dave Matthews Band’s latest Live Trax album, is now available for pre-order.

The two-disc set captures DMB’s July 14, 2010 concert in Scranton, Pennsylvania, which was the longest show of the 2010 summer tour. Live Trax Vol. 22 features seven songs that cross the 10-minute barrier, including “Grace is Gone,” “Lying in the Hands of God” and “#41.” Other highlights include “The Stone” as the opener, “Two Step” as the closer and a nearly 16-minute version of “So Damn Lucky” in the encore. The album also includes the first performance of the “One Sweet World” instrumental intro since 2003.

Here’s the full track listing for Live Trax Vol. 22:

Disc One

1. “The Stone”
2. “Warehouse”
3. “Grace Is Gone”
4. “Seven”
5. “You Might Die Trying”
6. “Tripping Billies”
7. “Cry Freedom”
8. “Lying in the Hands of God”

Disc Two

1. “Gravedigger”
2. “One Sweet World”
3. Improv Jam
4. “Pantala Naga Pampa”/”Rapunzel”
5. “Why I Am”
6. “Busted Stuff”
7. “#41″
8. “Shake Me Like a Monkey”
9. “Two Step”
10. “You and Me”
11. “So Damn Lucky”

Live Trax Vol. 22 is the first Live Trax from the Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King era, but it only features five songs from that album. DMB will release the live album June 12.

Photo (cc) by Niels ten Have on Flickr and republished here under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

Model and Every Mother Counts founder Christy Turlington Burns (right) works on her Every Mother Counts campaign.

Dave Matthews Band is on Every Mother Counts 2012, a new benefit album.

DMB’s contribution to Every Mother Counts 2012 is a previously unreleased live version of “Sister.” Proceeds from the album will benefit Every Mother Counts, an organization fighting to reduce the worldwide maternal mortality rate.

Every Mother Counts 2012 also features previously unreleased tracks from Bpno and the Edge, Eddie Vedder, Coldplay, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and more, according to Rolling Stone. Other artists on the Every Mother Counts benefit album include Sting, Seal, Lauryn Hill and David Bowie.

Starbucks will begin selling Every Mother Counts 2012 exclusively May 1, and the benefit album will be available through May 29.

DMB has been exceptionally tight-lipped about the new album, but some information has come out here and there. This list features all the confirmed details we have so far.

We’ll update this list with more Dave Matthews Band new album information as it becomes available, so check back often.

Dave Matthews Band new album 2012 details

DMB entered a Seattle studio in early January with producer Steve Lillywhite. The band played the songs live, Lillywhite took drum recordings from those performances, and then the band members re-recorded their parts over those drum tracks. It only took six hours to record all of the horn parts for the new DMB album.

In May, an ESPN Deportes story about Boyd Tinsley said Dave Matthews Band’s new album will be released in the fall. In late April, Stefan had tweeted that Dave Matthews Band’s new album would probably be released in late summer or early fall, but soon afterwards, he deleted that tweet.

Lillywhite was mastering the album, the final step in the production process, on May 2. Mastering usually takes a day, according to an earlier tweet.

The only song confirmed for the new album is “Mercy,” which Dave Matthews performed on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” in April. That slow, acoustic version was not like the album recording, which Lillywhite said is “not just acoustic” and “not quiet.”

The new album is “about 55 minutes” long, according to Lillywhite, with somewhere between 11 and 15 tracks. The shortest song is “2 [minutes] and change,” and there is a track longer than eight minutes.

The last track on the new album is Lillywhite and Stefan Lessard’s favorite last track from any DMB album. Lillywhite described it as “very uplifting.” “Mercy” is not this song.

Lillywhite compared the album to DMB’s “big three” (Under the Table and Dreaming, Crash and Before These Crowded Streets) by using the term “Big 4” in a February tweet.

Tower of Power’s Roger Smith plays keyboard on “a couple of tunes” on Dave Matthews Band’s new album. His specific instrument is a Hammond organ.

There are no old recordings of LeRoi Moore on the album. The saxophone parts are “all Jeff [Coffin].”

Phillips is an unabashed DMB fan who draws regular comparisons to Dave Matthews and has advanced to the top six on “American Idol.” His performance of “The Stone” last night was the first time he had covered DMB on the show.

Here’s what the “American Idol” judges had to say about Phillip Phillips’ “The Stone” performance:

• Steven Tyler: “Very entertaining. Very off the wall. What can I say about it? I didn’t like the melody.”
• Jennifer Lopez: “It was a pretty song. It was just a little bit obscure and a little bit too artsy.”
• Randy Jackson: “I was worried because it’s a Dave Matthews song, because people are always comparing you to Dave, but what you just did is, you showed your true colors once again.”

After the show, Stefan Lessard tweeted: “Good job on The Stone @PPhillipsAI11. You showed courage and heart and I thought @YO_RANDYJACKSON gave the best feedback. Well Done!” Phillips later replied: “thanks man i really appreciate that, i was nervous about it haha.”

Check out this video of Phillip Phillips’ “The Stone” performance from “American Idol”:

And here’s his studio version of “The Stone”:

We’ll find out if Phillip Phillips’ “The Stone” performance was enough for him to advance in the competition on tonight’s “American Idol” results show.

Check out the Jimmy Fallon and Dave Matthews “Walk of Shame” video, taken from yesterday’s special edition of “Late Night” from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:

This Dave Matthews “Mercy” video features Dave’s performance of the song with Captain Kirk Douglas of The Roots. “Mercy” is the first song confirmed to be on the new Dave Matthews Band album, which is due later this year. Producer Steve Lillywhite is in the final stages of mixing the new DMB album this week.

Lillywhite provided some additional information about the studio version of “Mercy” on Twitter, saying it’s “not just acoustic on the album” and “it is not quiet on the album!” In addition, he said the song is not the final track on the album.

After the Dave Matthews “Mercy” performance aired, Stefan Lessard also tweeted: “Dave killed it tonight! Glad Y’all liked the new tune ! I can not wait For everybody To Hear More! Soon soon soon”

Watch this Dave Matthews “Mercy” video and let us know what you think about the song in the comments!

Then-Senator John Edwards campaigns in New Hampshire in 2006.

Dave Matthews Band is back in the John Edwards scandal news.

A former campaign staffer testified today that Edwards went to extreme lengths to hide his extramarital affair with Rielle Hunter, a campaign videographer. The staffer, Andrew Young, said those efforts included funding Hunter’s expensive lifestyle, and at one point, Edwards instructed him to ask one of his close friends, a member of DMB, for money, according to The New York Times.

The Times article does not identify the DMB member or say whether or not Young ever asked him for the money. (Boyd Tinsley has supported Edwards’ campaigns and performed at Edwards fundraisers in the past, and his song “True Reflections” was in an Edwards campaign video.)

DMB’s name first came up in the scandal in 2009, when the Times reported that Edwards, the former senator and presidential candidate, told Hunter that the band would play at their wedding after his cancer-stricken wife died. That news led Stefan Lessard to call Edwards a “sleaze ball.” In 2010, Young wrote a book about his time working with Edwards, and it included a section about how Hunter “weirded out” DMB members and crew.

Edwards eventually admitted his affair with Hunter (and fathering a child with her), and he separated from his wife, Elizabeth Edwards, who passed away in late 2010. He is now on trial for corruption.

Photo (cc) by Roger H. Goun and republished here under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

Dave played the new DMB song, “Mercy,” on an acoustic guitar, accompanied by The Roots’ Captain Kirk Douglas, also on acoustic guitar. According to a tweet from Jimmy Fallon yesterday, the song will be on the new DMB album.

Jarrard Cole, a reporter for reesenews at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, tweeted these partial lyrics from the chorus of “Mercy:” “Mercy, can we overcome this/One by one we turn this around.”

The “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” taping took place on the UNC campus, where the special guest was President Barack Obama. Dave and Fallon opened the show with a comedy song, “Walk of Shame.”

The episode of “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” featuring Obama and Dave airs at 12:35 ET on NBC.

Here’s a photo of Dave Matthews and Captain Kirk Douglas playing the new Dave Matthews Band song, “Mercy,” taken by The Roots’ Questlove. And make sure to watch the Dave Matthews “Mercy” video too!

Then-Senator Barack Obama campaigns in Washington, D.C. in 2007.

Dave Matthews and President Barack Obama will appear on a special episode of “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” on April 24.

Obama and Dave will tape the episode earlier that day at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The event marks the first time Obama has appeared on Fallon’s show; Dave last appeared in 2009, when Dave Matthews Band played two songs and he took part in Fallon’s “Dave Matthews GPS” skit. Fallon’s house band, The Roots, who have performed with DMB in the past, will also be at the UNC taping.

Obama and Dave will meet again May 10, when Dave performs at a political fundraiser at Seattle’s Paramount Theater, according to The Seattle Times. Tickets to that event range from $100 for balcony seats to $5,000 for a post-show photo op with the president.

Photo (cc) by jamesomalley on Flickr and republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Sessions for the Stefan Lessard solo album are taking place at The Village studios in West L.A. Stefan first disclosed the news last week on Twitter.

“Going into a studio next week to start!” he wrote. “Time to really grow.”

Since that post, more information has come out. Eric Fawcett, drummer for N.E.R.D. and Stefan’s Yukon Kornelius band mate, posted a picture of his drum kit in the studio on Twitter yesterday with this message: “Out of shape and huffing through set up for sessions this week with @SLessard at @VillageStudios. Love these drums!”

And Fawcett’s music production company, Egg Music, posted this message: “Exciting things afoot at Egg! Including @ericfawcett in LA this week working w/ @SLessard of [@davematthewsbnd] on his new solo record.” Stefan also posted a photo of Fawcett “in the studio putting down some magic.”

The Stefan Lessard solo album will mark the third individual album by a Dave Matthews Band member. Boyd Tinsley released True Reflections in 2003, followed by Dave Matthews’ Some Devil later that year.

UPDATE (4/10, 8:57 P.M.): Stefan posted this message on Twitter this afternoon: “To clarify Solo Project = Stripped I’m not working on a Solo “album” Yet. Carry on.” This project is apparently the recording of the score for “Stripped,” a documentary about comics. Rashawn Ross is also working on this project with Stefan and Fawcett.